Gronkowski’s production reaches record level

Bulletin from Bill Belichick! Hot news about Rob Gronkowski! “He’s a good player,” Belichick said after Gronk caught seven passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns in the Patriots’ 59-24 rout over the Colts.

Comment

By
JIM DONALDSON
Posted Nov. 18, 2012 @ 9:05 pm

FOXBORO — Bulletin from Bill Belichick!

Hot news about Rob Gronkowski!

“He’s a good player,” Belichick said after Gronk caught seven passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns in the Patriots’ 59-24 rout of the Colts.

Talk about indulging in shameless flattery.

But, sometimes, Coach Hoodie just can’t help himself.

Emotional guy that he is, he gets caught up in the exhilaration of the moment and gets carried away.

“Rob does a great job for us — blocking, receiving, third down, red area,” Belichick added, all but gushing with enthusiasm about Gronk’s performance.

Saying Gronk is “good” in the red area is like saying Tom Brady’s wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, is fairly good-looking.

Gronkowski is all but unstoppable in the red area.

Hyperbole?

Nope, fact.

His two TD receptions Sunday give him 10 in as many games. Which, amazingly, is below the pace he set last season, when he had 17 in 16 games — plus a rushing touchdown.

Those 17 TD catches last year set an NFL record for tight ends.

Speaking of league records, Gronk now has caught at least 10 TD passes — he had 10 as a rookie in 2010 — for three straight seasons, which no tight end in the league ever had done before.

That’s why it was concerning when Gronkowski left the field late in the game with what some news outlets are reporting is a broken forearm.

The Patriots, as is their custom, had nothing to say Sunday night about a potential injury to their star tight end.

After the game, however, the Colts had plenty to say about Gronk.

“He has such a big body (6-foot-6 and 265 chiseled pounds) and is such a fluid receiver,” said Colts safety Tom Zbikowski. “It’s not like he’s going to burn you with his speed, but he finds a way to get open every time. And they also have a pretty good quarterback who can put it where he needs to put it.”

Put this next item in the category of inexplicable:

Considering how dangerous Gronkowski is in the red zone, why don’t teams put more defenders on him in attempt to make somebody else — anybody else — beat them?

“They try,” Brady said. “It’s definitely something they try. It’s just hard because, when you’re a tight end, you’re in the inside part of the field and you can run basically anywhere you want.

“It’s not like you’re an outside receiver, where your route has to complement other people’s routes. As a tight end, you can go to the right, left, deep, short. You can really do whatever you want.

“And the more guys you put on him, the less there are on Wes [Welker], Brandon [Lloyd], Julian [Edelman]. The less you have rushing. Do you blitz? Do you not blitz? That’s why it’s team football. Team football — that’s what it’s about.”

It helps when you have guys like Gronk on your team.

“We got some good matchups,” said Brady, “so I try to take advantage of those where we could.”

Nobody, it seems, has anybody who can match up with Gronkowski.

“He’s a tough matchup for everybody, not just us,” Colts coach Bruce Arians said. “You’ve got your work cut out for you if it’s your job covering him. And Tom (Brady) knows where to put the ball when you’ve got good coverage.

“I mean, Antoine Bethea (the Colts’ free safety) had great coverage on him one time and it was a perfect throw and a good catch. There’s nothing else you can do.”